Cornelia Read

Read's debut novel is a sharp, witty, articulate murder mystery full of quirky characters, fun pop culture references, and edgy (but not cruel) observations about human nature.

The main character is Madeline Dare, a downstate NY debutante who grew up among wealth, but her particular branch of the family tree has gotten a bit shabby. She ends up married to Dean, an upstate farmboy-turned-inventor and they live in Syracuse where Maddie works as a journalist for a small weekly paper. She spends show more her days writing articles on such riveting topics as green bean casseroles and hot winter drinks, and dreaming of the day she and Dean can leave town and never look back.

One day everything gets a little weird when Maddie is confronted with an old set of dog tags that her father-in-law uncovered when he was plowing a field - a field that happens to be the scene of a 20-year-old unsolved double homicide. The name on the dog tags is the name of Maddie's favorite cousin and she is gradually, reluctantly drawn into investigating this long-ago crime in order to prove he wasn't involved.

I thought the plot was delightfully twisty, with enough clues to allow the reader to try to solve the crime along with Maddie, but enough turns and surprises to make me doubt my conclusions several times along the way.

But my favorite thing about the story is the fascinating cast of characters, including Madeline herself. She's smart, funny, flawed, messy, and human. I love the fact that she isn't always perfectly likeable, although I did...like her, that is.

I can't wait to see what Ms. Read writes next! show less

Madeline, aka Bunny (yep, she's a Wasp), attracts trouble of the most deadly kind. In this second book, she has reluctantly taken a job as a teacher at a school for very troubled teenagers, run by a headmaster who seems more like a cult leader than a principal. It strained my credulity that the goings-on there would have been tolerated by anyone (especially the spunky Bunny) for more than two minutes - but the writing zips along with a refreshing energy, and you've gotta love Bunny and her show more foul-mouthed ways. show less

First Line: When we first moved to Boulder, I was entirely too happy-- a state of being so rare in my experience that I found it rather terrifying.

Madeline's husband Dean found a job in Boulder, Colorado, and while he spends a lot of his time on the road as a salesman, Madeline is a stay-at-home mother of two toddler twin girls, India and Parrish. Her world couldn't be any more different from the life she knew in New York City.

At first Madeline is ecstatically happy, but as exhaustion wears show more her down, she becomes dissatisfied. Her world has shrunk to an endless round of taking care of two demanding babies, a house that is never clean, and a husband who, when he is home, is more and more critical of her.

When her mother and her friends tell her that she needs to do something outside the house just for her, she manages to get a job writing restaurant reviews for a local newspaper. The editor loves her writing and asks her to attend a neighborhood meeting in which fire department officials will advise residents on how to defend themselves against an arsonist who's been torching buildings in the area. The subject fascinates her, and Madeline becomes friends with one of the arson investigators. She even begins to do a bit of investigating on her own, but when the fires turn deadly and the stakes disastrously personal, Madeline finds that she needs every atom of courage she possesses to keep those whom she loves safe from harm.

When someone asks me to list my favorite writers of any genre, Cornelia Read is always in the top tier. Her creation, Madeline Dare, is the best blend of smart alecky, brave vulnerability that I've ever encountered. At first, I was hesitant with this book. Madeline as a mother? I chose not to procreate for a very good reason: I am not child friendly. Read made me forget all that as Madeline hauled her children all over town in a red wagon, as she fixed them broccoli, and made sure she packed the sippy cups and extra diapers. Madeline was a natural, and she made me forget that I'm not.

I cheered as she found the job at the newspaper so she could do something she liked to do that didn't involve babies... something that made her feel better about herself. She needed that because as the pages turned I had grave misgivings about the way her marriage was going, and so did her friends in Boulder.

The mystery concerning the arsonist is an intriguing one, but this book is about so much more than arson. It's about motherhood and marriage, it's about friendship and tragedy and grief. It's about standing up for yourself and those you love. There are many things in life that can turn to ash within the blink of an eye. As Madeline deals with all these issues, I was intensely emotionally involved. This sassy-mouthed woman with a big, big heart is one of the few fictional characters who can make me cheer, laugh, gasp, and cry within the space of a very few sentences.

If I didn't know better, I'd swear that Cornelia Read dips her pen in her own heart's blood as she writes. This is beautifully written, emotional, soul-searing and laugh-out-loud funny fiction at its very best. It's anyone's guess as to whose soul is bared the most throughout the book, Madeline's or Cornelia's, and it really doesn't matter. What does matter is that I want more. Lots more. show less

First Line: So here's what I love about New York City: if someone acts like a dumb asshole and you call them on acting like a dumb asshole, the bystanders are happy about it.

If you read that first sentence of Invisible Boy above, you probably already know whether or not you like the main character, Madeline Dare. And since I'm admitting that I love Cornelia Read's smart alecky character with a big, big heart, I've undoubtedly just admitted a lot about myself. So be it.

It's the early 1990s. show more Madeline and her husband have survived the Rust Belt and find themselves sharing a small apartment with friends in New York City. Maddie finds a job with little trouble, but it takes Dean a while to land a job with the husband of Astrid, one of Maddie's closest friends.

When Madeline agrees to help a relative resurrect an old family cemetery in Queens, she discovers the tiny skeleton of a badly abused three-year-old boy. Determined that justice be served, Madeline keeps in touch with police throughout the investigation and is a witness for the prosecution during the trial.

As the weeks go by, she finds herself examining her own life as well as the class and racial warfare that's being waged on the streets of New York City. Every step of the way she is helped by a colorful assortment of relatives, old friends and new acquaintances. Each one of these people represent an ingredient in the melting pot that is the City of New York.

I normally pigeonhole each book I review firmly within a subgenre, but once in a great while, I find myself inventing one because the book doesn't fit any of the existing ones. I call Invisible Boy "Noir-With-a-Heart" because Cornelia Read herself says that she writes noir. My take on "noir" has more to do with tough-talking private eyes who bed a different woman every night than it has to do with smart-mouthed softie Madeline Dare. Eh. While we're on the subject, why don't we just dispense with labels and say Invisible Boy is one damned fine piece of writing? Works for me!

This book basically is a slice of a few months of Madeline Dare's life from shortly before she discovers a child's skeleton in an old cemetery, through the ensuing police investigation, until the verdict is given at the end of the trial. During these weeks and months, we learn a great deal about Maddie, the types of people she surrounds herself with, and how Maddie views and participates in the world around her. We yawn a little while Maddie is at work, and we laugh more than a little when a defense attorney asks her how she got to be so good at stumbling over dead bodies.

But more than anything else, we come to realize that this isn't just about a tiny abused boy named Teddy who spent much of his three years on earth in fear and pain. This book, this Invisible Boy, is really about all the world's betrayed children who have no one to speak for them.

As you read the prosecuting attorney's closing statement, have a box of tissues at hand. Your heart will break. Yes... Invisible Boy made me laugh, it made me cry, it made me sick, and it made me angry. It is indeed Noir with a Heart. show less